It Stays in the Family
by Roses aren't Red 101
Summary: Three families, all intertwined by a crime. The Hales, Swans and Cullens. The Swan sisters just lost their father and all of their money. The Hales run the most important car manufacturer in the east coast. The Cullens are paying off a debt. AH/AU. Disclaimer: I don't own twilight. Reviews are highly appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_February 11th, 2014_

_The screeching of tires could be heard throughout the entire building of Hale Industries as well as the obvious sounds of a car crashing and the pleas for help. However, the building was empty except for a solitary man with a ponytail, red plaid shirt and tattered jeans. He looked on and smiled softly before turning around and going home._

* * *

**Present Day**

The smell of burnt … something… filled the small house. "Who let Rose near the oven again?" Upon entering the kitchen, she saw grey smoke coming out of the oven. She sighed dramatically before reaching for the fire extinguisher – this sort of thing happened far too often – and looked through the oven's glass to determine if there was a fire to extinguish. At least it was not on fire. She put the extinguisher down and looked around, trying to find the cookie killer.

"Why don't you just use a clock or timer, I think your phone has an app for that." She said when her younger sister peeked out from the bathroom.

"Bella can just sense when they're good to eat." Rosalie complained bitterly as she shut the door again.

"Well, Bella is a natural cook, you suck." She turned to the right into her, well, _their_ room. It was tiny and cluttered. It was, as you'd expect with three girls living together. Seemingly there were only two beds, one in the far corner, below the window and the other stood awkwardly next to the door. How did three girls sleep there? Well, the bed below the window had a bed drawer. That was the bed that Alice and Bella shared, since they were the lighter pair and Rosalie got the independent bed.

Alice didn't think of her sister as fat, but she was tall – like 5'9 tall – and well, Bella was an average 5'4 and herself, she was the shortest straw at 4'10. As for their living arrangements, that was complicated.

Their father, good ol' Charlie O'Shea, had passed away at age 48. He had been a good man, for sure, and though he had survived three heart attacks, the thing to take him had been a freak car accident. He had a quick death, he was killed on impact, but the events surrounding his death were odd. Despite his lack of accident record, it was concluded that his death had been his fault: he had simply lost control of the steering wheel and crashed against the light post. The real issue came when his last will was read out two weeks after his passing: all of his money, propriety and belongings were to go to his wife and children.

Here's where you think: what's the problem? As it happened, Renee and Charlie never married and because of Renee's feminist ideals their daughters were not registered as Charlie's. Which meant that his lawful wife and children were not Renee, Alice, Rose and Bella.

He had been married to Sue Clearwater two years ago and had adopted her children: Leah and Seth. So they got the money and the real estate and the family name. Renee had been grief stricken for days after finding out and the daughters developed hateful feelings towards their father.

Good ol' Charlie soon became fucking old bastard Charles.

So… there was no inheritance, no money and technically, not much else. The house they were living in had been a gift to Renee when they decided to move in together twenty five years ago and it took a lot of convincing – three years, two babies and a very bad case of morning sickness, to be exact – to make her accept the house as her own.

Alice still lived with her parents since she graduated claiming that she was saving up all that she could to finance her clothing line. Single, but with no time for boyfriend or regular friends, she was more of a loner, despite her clear chirpy and talkative personality, as it was, she claimed to not have time for anything. So she was saving up to be eligible for a bank loan and that way finance her dream. Currently, she worked as a fashion consultant for aspiring celebrities and personal image for some small time politicians that couldn't afford the most prestigious advisers. But they paid well and she calculated that in a year more or so, she'd be able to reach her goal.

The other two, Rosalie and Bella, were still in college – Rose was on her last year and Bella was in her junior year – they had shared an apartment, funded by Charlie and when all of his things were revoked to be given to his lawful wife and offspring, well… let's just say Rose and Bella were out of the list. So that left them with no place to live in, fortunately their mother took them in. Tuition for school however, was another matter entirely, one that was not settled as easily as they would've liked.

Since Rose was in her last year, the school administration board gave her the rest year worth of tuition free since she already had a pretty big scholarship. As for Bella, she also had a 50% scholarship and a 10% financial aid, but her measly paid part time job would not be able to pay for the other 40%. She applied for more scholarship but was put on hold because of her criminal record.

"Why is Rose still allowed near the kitchen?" asked Bella to no one in particular as she entered the house. None of the sisters had bothered to clean the mess up and the longer they left the cookies to melt; the harder it would be to get them out. But none of them had the time or motivation to actually do something about the cookie remnants. Bella rushed to the room the three of them shared and took off her black crop top and put on a simple t-shirt that read 'I speak for those who can't', Alice eyed her with disapproval but otherwise kept her criticism to herself.

Normally, she would've challenged the youngest of the bunch, but seeing that they were both running late for their respective jobs, she was quiet about it. "You coming for dinner?"

"Of course" answered Bella rolling her eyes. "I can't afford to eat out."

"Oh, no, I was just wondering if the Williams were gonna feed you, since you're babysitting…"

"Nah, its just an hour, the Mrs. had some emergency business to attend to." Bella was also juggling several jobs during the school year, she was a literature tutor for high schoolers, a grammar and vocabulary mentor for middle and elementary school aged children and a nanny for toddlers and infants. On the weekends she spent her time volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center, which obviously, was done for free and according to Alice, was a total waste of time.

"Hey, have you seen my pearl bobby pins?" Rose asked as she entered the room. She had put on a clean dress and needed the pins to secure her up-do.

"You'll look ridiculous, we're doing you a favor by not helping you find them." Bella said loftily as she left the room.

Rosalie sighed and sat on her bed, concentrating on the floor, trying to remember where she last saw them. Alice smiled into the shirt she was sewing, "Just use regular pins."

"No." Rose shook her head fiercely. "No. This is personal; Bella has been hiding them. I need to find them, it's a pride thing." She grabbed a pillow from on top of her bed and put it on the floor, she kneeled on top of it and then got on all fours.

"Well, I'm done. Gotta run, good luck with your fake pearl pins." The fake comment was probably unnecessary, but the pins were truly the tackiest things ever invented. And she did know where they were; she and Bella had thrown them in a trashcan near the McDonald's downtown last week.

Rosalie sighed, "Can you give me a ride?" Alice looked at her amused, and told her she was heading to the industrial district.

"I know, I have an interview at Hale Industries." Alice blanched; she was rarely taken by surprise, especially by her own sister.

"Umm, sure." Rosalie looked smug at having known something Alice hadn't. They had two cars, one to the name of their mother and the other to Alice's, Rose only had a bike to her name and taking the bike through some not so nice parts of town was not safe. Unfortunately.

The car ride was filled with Alice's mindless chatter about how surprised and excited she was that they were both going to the same place. She was going to advice a newly come vice-something on public image. Rosalie, on the other hand, wanted a position in the car making process and hoped she had enough recommendations to score the spot. She had just four more months until graduation and was trying to find a decent paying job to be able to afford a masters degree and get a very good paying position.

After twenty minutes of senseless conversation, Alice parked on the street across from a gigantic building that was covered in glass and had over thirty different cars on display. "What a waste of good parking places." She commented to Rose, who was admiring the vehicles with wonder and hoping she'd one day be able to better some of their engines.

Upon entering, they were greeted by a: "Welcome to Hale Industries" from an elegant girl, "do you have an appointment?"

Before they could answer, a blond man who was in his thirties approached them, "Yes, do you both work for Ms. Swan?"

"Mr. Hale? I'm Alice Swan, I'm the image consultant." She said as she shook his hand.

"Very pleased to meet you" he threw the girls a charming smile and Rose had to put all of her willpower not to roll her eyes. Alice however, managed to keep a straight face and answered as was appropriate.

"Is the other young lady here with you?" he said motioning to Rosalie.

"No. I'm here for an interview." Rose said crossing her arms.

"Oh, you must be Jasper's. Gwen, be a dear and let my brother know she's here." Gwen immediately set to the task and Mr. Hale said goodbye to Rosalie and left with the other sister. Five minutes later and Rose was starting to get annoyed, there was only so much a person could do to entertain oneself in a reception hall with no magazines, no pamphlets, no anything, not even chairs. She was just starting to consider sitting in the floor when another blond man appeared.

"I am so sorry for the delay. But, there was an issue with the production line of cowl screens." He stuck out his hand and said what she already knew, "I'm Jasper Hale, chief automobile designer, and you must be Ms. Swan." He was a handsome man, and though he looked young to be chief anything, Rosalie guessed that his last name must put him in the important people list. She couldn't help but note that he wore simpler clothes than his older brother who was wearing a suit. Jasper had don on jeans and the fanciest piece of clothing on him was a vest.

"Rosalie" she answered with a smile as she shook his hand firmly and forced herself to meet his eyes.

"Well, Rosalie, why don't you tell me how you'd fix our cowl problem?" Rosalie was surprised by the question but was quick to ask for details on the problem and asked to see the factory.

Not surprisingly, half an hour later the problem had been solved and Rosalie was the new manager of engineering for Hale Industries' newest project. She shook Jasper's hand and went back to the reception to wait for her sister. She looked at her clock, it was six thirty and she was starting to get hungry.

"Patience is a virtue." She was about to lash out at the man who had decided could meddle in her ability to wait patiently when she saw him. He was gorgeous. He had sandy blond hair and the bluest eyes ever framed by small wrinkles making him look more real. She was gaping at him and he found it amusing, as would anyone.

"Uh, mmm, eh - that's really none of your business." She was able to get out. She mentally slapped herself. She shook her head and turned around. _Alice, hurry up,_ she thought almost desperately.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude." He walked around her so that they stood face to face. "I'm Royce."

"Ms. Swan." His eyebrows shot up; he hadn't expected to receive such a cold exchange from her.

"Well, Ms. Swan, hopefully one day you'll forgive my trespass and allow me to call you by your first name." Rose was dying from embarrassment inside. She hadn't meant to sound so impolite, but she couldn't help herself. She went on bitch mode when there were boys around. She was about to attempt to apologize to Royce when Alice finally emerged from the elevator.

"Hey, Rose! You won't believe – " Alice stopped talking when she saw Royce and smiled politely and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Rose…? "

"Oh, he's Royce. Royce, she's my sister, Alice." There was a twinkle in his blue eyes that made Rose burn with embarrassment at him having heard her name.

"Nice to meet you, but we should get going. Goodbye" Rosalie said before any of them could do anything else.

"A pleasure ladies." He managed before the girls got out of the building. Rosalie sighed in relief.

"You should really take a class on how to treat men without being rude." Alice said calmly as she put all of her books and magazines on the back seat of the car.

"I know!" she answered while putting her hands on her face. "I just – I can't help myself. I see a cute boy and its like I'm on autopilot." They got in the car and Alice tried to give some tips to her younger sister about how to be nice.

"It's useless. We've had this conversation like a million times. I can't change!" she said in despair. Alice simply rolled her eyes and allowed Rose to wallow in her anguish.

It had always been like this. Since Rose was fourteen and she started calling boys' attention. She just verbally and non-verbally punched them and rejected them without even trying.

Not a lot of boys came up to her, probably scared by her beauty and those who did manage to find the courage to go speak with her were rejected in four words or less. Hence, the prettiest of the sisters remained as single as the day she was born.

They'd had four interventions, the first one when she actually punched a guy because he was trying to get her some fruit punch, then when she was asked on a date by a guy eleven years older than her and she told him she was not going anywhere with a pedophile, and so on.

When they arrived at their house the smell of cookies had been long gone. Rosalie quickly went to the kitchen to see how badly she'd have to scrub. To her surprise everything was clean and she was momentarily confused. Their mother wouldn't have cleaned it, but she knew of a certain someone with OCD tendencies that wouldn't be able to stand the mess. "Bella!"

"Don't worry about it, you just have to promise to give me your firstborn!" She answered from upstairs. Rose went to their room and hugged Bella who was sitting in the floor trying to read, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm the best."

"You are! Thank you!" Rosalie leaned down and kissed her sister's cheek.

"How did your interview go?"

"Amazing! I got the job!"

"Great! What's the pay?"

"Bella!" Alice scolded.

"What?" she looked to Alice who just rolled her eyes. "I wanna know how soon you can help me pay school!" She said it jokingly, but they were all working several jobs and had agreed that ten percent of their earnings would go to Bella's tuition. For which Bella was immensely grateful and was planning on repaying them as soon as she could. "I clean your cooking fiascos and you pay for my school! Its only fair." She finished and winked.

"I'm gonna go take a shower." Alice announced and Bella groaned.

Rose laughed and started to put on her pajamas. "You should've taken a shower while we were out."

"Ugh, I know. But I have to finish this book by tomorrow." She sighed and was about to continue reading when Rose asked suspiciously:

"Do you have to write a report or take an exam?" her sister had the decency to look sheepish.

"Neither." Rose raised an eyebrow. "There's this talk about population growth and environmental sustainability and – don't give me that look!" Rose sat on her bed and wondered why her sister liked to get herself in trouble.

"I'm all for the defending of the unborn, but I think your methods are a bit…" she thought for a moment, trying to determine which word would be appropriate for her sister "…wild." She decided. Bella just looked offended.

"They are not!"

"If that were true you wouldn't have several restraining orders against you." She said and pointed at the folder underneath Bella's bed.

"Ok, what do you suggest I do Gandhi?" Rose sighed. She didn't have any real suggestions that her sister would consider.

"I thought so. Praying outside clinics every weekend is not the answer, Rose. We have to speak up."

"Ooh, Bella's going to another protest tomorrow?" said Alice as she entered the room while drying her hair on a towel.

"Apparently there's a lecture she's going to crash." Alice laughed and Rose gave a small smile. Bella simply huffed and continued her reading.

Rose eventually started braiding her hair and stopped thinking about Royce; Alice reached inside her trunk for the blue dress she was working on, took out her sewing glasses and started on the job. "Have you eaten Bella?" she asked, taking on the role of mother hen.

"Nah, I was waiting for you." She answered with a smile, not taking her eyes away from the book in her hands.

"How sweet of you." Rosalie said sarcastically while rolling her eyes. Bella was a great cook, but if it came down to defending her views and eating, she'd starve. "I wanna eat pizza. Pepperoni pizza."

"Rose, we ate that two days ago." Bella countered finally taking her eyes off of the book.

"So?"

"So?" Bella echoed indignantly. "Alice, shed some light on our uncultured sister."

"Actually…"

"Oh, come on! There are plenty other things we can eat. Something that is not as pricey." Alice scrunched up her nose, lamenting how their standards had lowered so much. They used to eat caviar and escargot every other day and now… now pizza seemed like a luxury.

"There's cheese and bread…" the idea wasn't too appealing to any of them since they had eaten that for breakfast yesterday but it was cheaper than pizza and so it was settled.

"Fine" said Rose dramatically while fake crying. "What we do to keep you in school and away from drugs."

Bella felt a pang of guilt but Alice saw it and was quick to assure her that it was a joke. She shrugged, still a little remorseful but chose to not dwell too long on it. Bella volunteered to make the sandwiches but Rose was quick to remind her that she had nothing to do today and that grilled cheese sandwiches were among the two dishes she could prepare.

"Dinner is served!" Rosalie hollered and less than one minute passed when Bella came rushing in, exclaiming how the lord had been good to them. To which Rosalie scolded on grounds of not making fun of her religion.

"Not making fun!" Rose lifted her eyebrows. "Just saying that food could convert me." Bella shrugged and sat down on one of the chairs near the sink.

"You didn't burn them!" Alice exclaimed happily.

"Just eat your food."

Renee was bound to appear sometime the next day, it was usual for her to disappear for weeks, but never more than a month and so tomorrow was the day before the month was due. None of the girls knew for sure what it was that she did; however, she came back in a very good mood so no one thought to question her about it. Their mother was young looking, almost on the verge of forty, russet colored hair and green eyes, everyone wondered why out of the three girls, nobody looked remotely close to her. Bella was the one who could claim to have a close resemblance to, but it was very hard to spot.

Indeed, the next morning at exactly five fourteen their mother closed the door with a bang and exclaimed:

"Good morning honey bees!" Bella groaned and uttered a curse, Rosalie had woken up enough to throw a pillow at her and Alice was deep asleep, probably dreaming of her newest design.

Bella rolled out of her bed into the floor, uttered another curse and got up. Rosalie managed to get up in a much more graceful manner and immediately ran for the bathroom leaving Bella with the task of waking Alice.

"Alice" she said as she poked her "Alice, Renee is here." With that Alice sprang up and started getting dressed as quickly as she could.

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**A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first story and I would really really really appreciate comments. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you're liking the story so far, I'd love to hear from you! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_October 13th, 2004_

_"Momma, please!" Were the desperate pleas of a fifteen year old girl. Long black hair tied back by a pink bow, grey eyes round and wide, begging for understanding. Green eyes filled with disdain stared right back down._

_"One or the other, Alice" she tried, there was no way Renee would allow any daughter of hers to do something as degrading as sewing clothes. Renee had arrived a day earlier than usual and had caught her oldest child with a sewing machine, making a pink dress._

_Alice begged her mother to not throw away the machine and Renee's mind suddenly came up with the perfect compromise: hair for clothes. Alice's long locks would have to go if she wanted to continue sewing and designing clothes._

* * *

**Present Day**

"Why has nobody cooked breakfast? I'm starving!" complained Renee from the kitchen.

"Bella! Go!" Alice urged hastily as she started putting on shoes. Bella snapped out of her still sleepy state and ran to the kitchen to start making breakfast in her pajamas.

"For fuck's sake! Why are you still in your pajamas? You are such an embarrassment." Alice flinched and quickly ran a brush through her hair, willing the process to go faster so that Bella could go up and get dressed. After hearing their mother chastise Bella for another minute, Alice was finally presentable enough to go downstairs and relieve her sister from the myriad of insults thrown her way.

"Hello Renee." She greeted.

"Alice! Finally! Someone who doesn't look like she just rolled out of bed!" Renee was glad that at least one of her daughters had the sense to be up bright and early, ready to go. She wasn't one to display affection, she didn't hug her firstborn upon her entering the kitchen and Alice didn't even attempt to. "How have things been? No! Don't you dare cook for me. Bella will have to."

Alice knew that was to be expected and despite that she still tried to convince her to allow her to cook. Bella had to go to school today at seven and if Renee wanted her to cook, it meant she wanted her to clean up as well. Meaning that Bella would be out of the house by eight thirty if she was lucky. "At least let me help you unpack." If Renee said yes, Bella's departure would be at seven forty.

Renee made a show of thinking about it and decided it wouldn't hurt her to allow Alice to unpack. "Go."

"Is she in a bad mood?" Rosalie asked as she was heading down the stairs.

"She's had worse." Alice whispered.

After Bella came downstairs Rose volunteered to help with the dishes and Alice volunteered to put the leftovers in the fridge. Renee was lenient which allowed Bella to get to her first class. Rosalie left a little after ten to class, which left Alice with Renee, yet as soon as she finished cleaning Renee's suitcase she holed up on her room to sew.

Ever since Charles mysterious death Renee had turned colder and more vicious. She felt that her three daughters owed her and the fact that her lawyer hadn't managed to get them at least a little part of the inheritance had left Renee exhausted. On top of that, there was no way to prove that Alice, Rose and Bella were Charles' daughters because he had been the last living member of his family tree and Sue's children were from her previous marriage.

The day prior to Renee's return she'd received an e-mail stating that Charles' widow was pregnant, that had also contributed to her irritable mood. "Damn her!" she yelled as she turned over the coffee table at the living room. Alice balked from upstairs, glad that she was nowhere near her mother and set back to work, ignorant of what caused Renee to snap.

The rest of the day went by without much trouble; Rosalie and Bella would not be coming back until dinnertime and Alice had to run downtown to buy more fabric. When she returned Renee was sprawled in the living room's couch, staring vacantly at the upturned table.

"Don't bother." She said quietly before Alice could ask if she was all right and left.

The clock read three forty four with two seconds when the phone rang. Alice knew who would be and tried to reach the phone before her mother did. Unfortunately she wasn't as fast as she'd hoped and Renee picked it up before the first ring was over.

"Damned be the hour!" Renee screeched. "Alice!"

"Yes?" she answered as she started going down the stairs.

"I'm going to go pick your goddamned sister from jail. When I get back I want this mess clean." She didn't wait for an answer and stormed out the house, green eyes ablaze with fury.

As soon as the door was closed Alice reached for the phone.

Rosalie had finished her two classes and had gone to Willets Point, where the Hale Industries' manufacturer was located. There, Jasper – her new boss, had given her a tour of the place and introduced her to some of the people who would be working with her on the new project. She was nervous, since she hadn't met who'd be her area boss. After all, she had gotten a good rank: manager of engineering. It was clear that Jasper would be directing the design of the car, but the functioning of it was on the hands of someone else.

They walked through a couple of metal doors where men were working and Rosalie exhaled in defeat. She had hoped there'd be at least another girl. She'd met a nice gal called Vera two rooms back, but it was clear they wouldn't be dealing with each other often.

"And here" he said while motioning to a guy who was underneath a chassis. "is your new boss."

"Hey! You'll make him scared of me!" the guy underneath the structure kicked Jasper's sheen without getting out of the car. Jasper made a face. "Bud, don't listen to Jasper, I'm E— " he got out of the car and looked genuinely surprised at seeing a girl. But it was probably due to the fact that Rose was wearing a pink dress. "Emmet." He finished while cleaning his hands in his jeans and then offered one to Rose.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rosalie Swan," she shook his hand and smiled, glad that it wasn't her who had trouble speaking for a change.

"Right back at ya'." Jasper elbowed him. "I mean, you too." Emmet gave her a smile, one so big that showed his dimples.

Right then her cellphone started ringing. "I'm sorry I'll-" she was about to turn it off, but Emmet was quick to tell her to pick up, that he'd see her tomorrow at four.

As she walked away, about to answer, she heard the two men speaking quietly.

"She looks just like –" Emmet started to say, surprise coloring his voice.

"I know." Jasper interrupted.

"Hey." Rosalie finally said to Alice. She swiftly explained the situation with their mother and she went to buy ice. From across the main entrance she saw Royce, who smiled at her and waved. She decided to ignore him and rushed home.

"Rose, Bella." Rosalie simply nodded and went upstairs to hide the ice in the trashcan.

It wasn't that they were expecting violence from their mother; it was that Bella got into fights and Renee wouldn't give her anything for the bruises, claiming that coddling Bella would be counterproductive. What they knew for sure was that it had been three weeks since their father's death and Renee had left a day after, coming back now and having to bail her youngest daughter would make the scolding that much bigger. Thus, they grabbed three cokes from the fridge and hid in their room until Bella made it upstairs.

The car ride had been uncharacteristically silent. Bella didn't try to talk to her mother and Renee tried to not loose it while driving.

They got to their house; from the outside it looked like any of the others surrounding it: white brick walls, two floors and stairs that lead to the main door. Once inside it was a completely different matter. The brownstone had been adapted to become a single-family residence. The first floor was quite open, to the right was the living room, where a blue couch sat on the far side of the room facing a TV set that their father had deemed necessary, to the wall in the right was a white bookcase that had titles that ranged from Austen's classics to The Velveteen Rabbit to Eating in the Light of the Moon. Bella tried to go up to her room but before she could even make a step in that direction her mother started speaking.

"Isabella Marie Swan." Bella flinched. "Why can't you try to be open to the truth?" Renee was not someone to be messed with; she looked like a peaceful hippie, but was the happy owner of a black belt in karate and in mixed martial arts. Aside from the physical threat that she was, she had intellectual knowledge that made her an unforgivable opponent. "I've tried to instill in all of you girls the way to live." She stepped closer to Bella.

"Mom, I— " before she realized what she'd done wrong, Renee had already closed the distance between them and slapped her.

"Do not call me that." Renee had always had an aversion to the title and had preferred her daughters called her Renee or ma'am if necessary. Not even Charles had understood the reasoning behind this choice. Bella simply put her hand up to her left cheek where the slap had landed.

"Sorry. It slipped." Renee remained quiet; her eyes alight with anger. "I know you don't believe in what I fight for— "

"You are not fighting for anything! You are giving the opposing group more arguments to their side!" Bella frowned, and Renee looked relieved that her daughter seemed to be contemplating what she did wrong. "Your so called 'cause' has no feet or head. Stop it. Stop trying to convince the rest of the world of something that will not and can not be changed."

"I can try!" Renee scoffed. "People are the ultimate resource; through innovation or intensification, humans can respond to increased numbers!"

"That's not the motor to your argument and you know it. You just want women to stop being able to have bodily autonomy."

"Renee, the overwhelming majority of pregnancies occur as a result of consensual sex." Her mother's green eyes twinkled with mirth. "It is unjust to deny an unborn child's right to life in favor of a bodily autonomy right that could have been vindicated earlier, and without violence, through the practice of abstinence or contraception." By the end of her speech Renee's humor had gone from mildly amused at a child's antics to immutable outrage.

"What you are is worse than any of your self-appointed 'enemies'. You are an anti-feminist! An insult to all of us!" she yelled as she slapped her, leaving a nasty red mark on Bella's face, which she was certain, would later develop into a bruise.

With a wounded ego and burning face, Bella left her mother and ran upstairs where her sisters comforted her. Oblivious to their sister's assailant, they assumed she'd gotten beat up in prison, again.

"Oh, Bella. Look at your face." Alice hovered with the ice in her hand. "You have got to stop making those people mad!" Rose nodded and Bella remained quiet, allowing her sisters to live in blissful ignorance.

An hour later Rosalie went downstairs and to ask her mother what she wanted to eat. She found Chinese food containers and a note:

_Bella, I'm sorry for snapping at you. The food's on me._

The evening took a much calmer path, Renee didn't show up again and the sisters decided to talk about movies and boys. Rosalie told them about Royce's wave and how she'd ignore him, which earned her reproachful looks from Bella and Alice.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Present Day**

It was with great relief that they woke up by their alarm clocks and not Renee's post-travel schedule, indicating that Renee had left again.

"Do you know what she does to keep this house?" Rose asked to Alice, they lived in a nice neighborhood in Ridgewood where German immigrants in the late 19th century had made the facades and so, they were rare anywhere else in Queens. It wasn't an obviously expensive house, but they'd all seen the bills and knew it wasn't easy to keep in their current state of bankruptcy.

"No idea." Said Alice with a seemingly unconcerned air. "Maybe she's a magic whore."

"What?" asked Bella, not trying to hide her disgust.

"You know, she makes spells and jinxes people for the highest bidder."

"Again, what?"

"Yeah, where do you get these ideas?" Rosalie asked as she finished putting her hair on a milkmaid braid.

"Well, I dreamt that's what she did, so I thought… maybe it is what she does." Rose and Bella looked at each other with concern for their oldest sister. "Look, for all we know about her, she could be totally doing something like that." She finished defensively and started straightening her hair.

"I rather not think of our mother as a voodoo high priestess or whatever she may or may not be doing according to your dream." With that, Bella donned on some jean shorts and a black tank top and Alice sighed in despair.

"Wear something pretty! Puh-lease!" she begged.

"I'll be dead before you see me in something that by your standards is pretty." Alice stood up and stared at her, all signs of mockery gone.

"One day." She gave one step towards the youngest sister. "One day you will." Alice smiled and sat back down on the floor to continue fixing her hair.

"Cryptic much?" Bella looked questioningly at Rose who just shrugged.

The bell rang and they all sent inquisitive gazes at each other. The bell rang again and Bella knew who it was.

"My man!" she said happily as she put up her hair in a high ponytail. Alice made a face and mouthed: '_why?' _The bell rang again.

"Go open the door for your man before I kill him. Doesn't Mike know about patience?" Rosalie said, her voice full of exasperation.

"Mike?" Bella laughed. "I broke up with him two weeks ago." Alice smiled and looked at Rosalie as if she should've known better.

"Oh. Then who is your man?" Rose asked while putting on concealer over her freckles, she hated them and often found herself wishing for Bella or Alice's clear skin.

"Jake." Bella stated proudly with a smile. Alice laughed.

"Of course." Rosalie sighed and rolled her eyes.

The bell rang again. Rosalie gave an irate look at Bella.

"He has to learn that I'm not available anytime it tickles his fancy to see me. I have a life."

"Well, your life might kill you if you ignore your man." Rosalie's eyes were hard, filled with annoyance as the bell ran again.

"Fine" huffed Bella and went to open the door. "My man!" exclaimed Bella loudly from the first floor and Rose gave a small laugh imagining her sister launching herself at the mutt.

"I'm going to tell Bella's new man that he better be more patient or I'll make sure Bella's title for him changes." Alice laughed and claimed she wanted to see Bella's face when she threatened her man.

The two sisters went down the stairs, Rosalie barefoot and Alice in high heels. As they expected, Bella was getting off Jacob's arms.

"You guys, this is Jacob, or Jake. Or the man, if you will." Bella announced.

"About that…" Rosalie was not lying when she said she'd threaten Jacob's title, she didn't do it in a sweet voice, no. She did it with a flat voice and stone face. Jacob looked very uncomfortable, maybe even a little scared and Bella was outraged.

"Come on, you can buy me breakfast." Bella said as she pulled Jacob out of her house, hoping to avoid any more threats. Jake managed to wave goodbye as he was being dragged outside and the two remaining sisters snickered and high-fived each other.

Bella eyed his car, thinly veiling her dislike of it.

"Don't judge the car." Jacob said as he opened the door to the driver's seat. "Hey, I wanted to ask: what happened to your face?" Bella's hand immediately reached for her cheek. It didn't hurt and it didn't look too conspicuous, there was just a red mark – as if she had spent too much time on the sun.

"Oh. It's nothing. The ladies in jail can be pretty rough." She smiled, attempting to joke.

"Is it worth it?" Bella made a puzzled face. "I mean, getting your pretty face beat up over that shit?"

"Of course!" she answered as if it was the dumbest question ever asked. And to her, it was.

"I just—I think that it's a lousy cause that you're fighting for." He looked directly ahead. Hoping Bella wouldn't be too mad, but he had to make her understand. Someone had to.

"My mom doesn't think its right." She looked out the window, suddenly wishing she could make someone understand, anybody. The only one who understood was Rosalie and she didn't really count because she was a zealot. Alice didn't care and Renee, well… she was Renee. "Anyways, I thought you agreed with my cause, what gives?"

"Renee was here?" he ignored her last question altogether. "Maybe you can introduce me, I mean, I'm an awesome specimen." He wiggled his eyebrows and Bella scoffed. "That is if she wants to meet me, of course."

"What if I don't want you to meet her?" Jacob blanked. "Besides its not like she's still here, she left sometime around midnight." Bella found herself wishing the drive to school wasn't as long as it was.

Jacob's face fell and then started apologizing. Assuming that Bella was lying about Renee, that she just didn't want him to meet her mom because he didn't agree with her views.

"I'm sorry that I trashed your cause, but think about it. You are basically fighting against your own sex."

"Not this again." Muttered Bella as her temper started to rise. "I am not fighting against, I am fighting for."

"I'm not sure that you are." He tried to explain himself, but could sense that Bella was being unreasonable. "I'm not a feminist, but I understand the basics. Equality. And all that shit. What you're fighting for ain't feminism, it ain't for the wellbeing of girls." They had arrived at a small café a block away from campus, Bella got out of the car, not waiting to listen to whatever else the stupid boy had to say.

"You're being unreasonable."

"No. _You_ are the one being unreasonable. I did not agree to dating you so that you could make a case for the enemy's cause."

"Do you even hear yourself? You sound ridiculous. Come on, lets go, I'll buy you Nutella crepes." Bella gave a dry laugh.

"No way buddy. You do not get to insult me and what I believe in, buy me food and then hope everything is fine." Her voice was starting to rise.

"Please." He looked around and motioned towards the café.

"No. I'm so done with this. You and I, we bonded, I… I agreed to go out with you because you made me think that you had the same ideals as me. And now you pull this bull on me."

"Bells, lets talk about it." He pleaded.

"No. Forget it." She walked away, her eyes stinging with angry tears.

"Dick!" She turned around and screamed at him from a couple of feet away and flipped him off.

"Real mature, Bella!" he said and turned around, obviously embarrassed at her outburst. She spent the rest of the day in silent anger, mulling over her actions, wishing she wasn't as short tempered. Even her most hateful teacher asked her if something was wrong after class; other teachers simply ignored her, assuming that her silence was due to some plotting for a way to sabotage next week's conference.

\\ \\ *} {* / /

"Afternoon, Ms. Swan." Rosalie smiled.

"Hello Gwyn," the girl repressed an annoyed face, Rosalie had been working at the Industry for a week and she just couldn't get her name right. She was oblivious to the newly acquired name placard on Gwen's desk and continued on to the main workshop, giving the angry girl a bright smile.

"Blondes." She muttered.

"What was that Gwyn?" Rose didn't understand the word, she just heard Gwyn's voice, she turned around and gave her a questioning look.

"Have a nice day." Gwen shook her head and Rosalie smiled again.

Upon arriving at the main workshop she sought Vera out. Her hair was up in a high ponytail and her face had smears of grease, unaware of it, she reached for Rosalie and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Guess who's here?" Vera asked basically out of the blue.

"The president?" Rosalie guessed.

"No! Your admirer." Vera said in a whisper. Rosalie looked around, confused as to whom this admirer of hers was. She was certain she'd already scared all of them.

"Who? Emmet?" he was the only man she could distinguish among the cars, the others were on their lunch break, and he was looking in their direction.

"Pft, no! Royce!" Vera rolled her eyes as if the suggestion was the stupidest thing ever. She ran a dirty hand through her ponytail and Rose winced at the gesture.

"If you wanna make a move on that piece of meat, and don't feel like going alone with him, give me a call. We can double date." She winked and left to keep working on the model for the car axis.

She gave another 360 look around the workshop, trying to find Royce. She didn't know what she'd do if she spotted him, say hello? Try not to punch him? Clean off the grease on her cheek? Before she could decide that it was better to not spot him and run away the man in question appeared.

"Hello, Ms. Swan." He was as handsome as she remembered, blond hair carefully combed and not a single hair out of place, blue eyes, slightly darker than hers, framed by small wrinkles from smiling too much. His smile was the cherry on the cake, white teeth and full lips. Rose tried not to swoon.

"Mr. Hale" she mustered.

"Call me Royce, sweetheart." Rosalie couldn't help herself and rolled her eyes. He was gorgeous when quiet, but his attempt at flirtation annoyed her.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with calling you Royce sweetheart."

"What?" he looked bewildered and wondered why she'd think he'd want her to call him sweetheart. Recognition flashed in his eyes as he recalled what he'd told her. "Oh, no, just call me Royce. _You're_ the sweetheart."

"Nice." She raised her eyebrows.

"I'm the epitome of nice. Want to go for dinner with this nice nice man?"

"Mmm, I don't know…" his smile remained and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"It'll be fun. I'll even pay." He finished and Rose was obviously torn by the free food offer. She was tired of eating sandwiches, pizza and frozen meals.

"All right. Next weekend."

"Saturday sound good?"

"Perfect, meet me at seven, you already have my address." Rosalie was slightly annoyed that he did have her address, but was glad that she wouldn't have to speak any longer with him.

"Of course, Ms. Swan." He reached for her left hand and kissed it. Rose smiled.

"Sorry to break the flirting time, but we need to get to work. Mr. Hale, Ms. Swan." Emmet interrupted and Rose didn't spare him a glance, enthralled by Royce's unfaltering smile and the tingling feeling on her hand, where he'd kissed it.

"No problem, gotta make a living, huh?" Royce broke away from Rose and addressed Emmet. "Cousin, always a pleasure." He turned his blue eyes towards Rosalie: "I'll see you later, Ms. Swan." He gave a small bow and turned.

"You can call me Rose." She said when Royce had disappeared. She didn't consider Emmet to be interested in her and so she treated him like a human being. Emmet raised a single eyebrow and smiled, wondering if she liked him better than Royce.

Her time at the fabric was short, from one to five and was always sad to leave such an amazing place. Before she left she looked for Vera, disappointed in not having found her she headed outside and as luck would have it she was speaking to Gwen.

"Sorry to interrupt, Vera, Gwyn." The both girls smiled, but Gwen's eyes turned harder as she inconspicuously straightened her placard. "Vera, can I take you up on your double date offer?"

"That was faster than I expected. Of course, when?" Vera's face was clean and after Rose explained the details, she hugged her. As this was happening Vera whispered in her ear: "Her name's Gwen, not Gwyn."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Present Day**

Rose stirred in her bed and sighed happily. Her date with Royce and Vera and Mason had gone pretty well. She'd been very nervous, worrying about all the things she could do to insult her date. Luckily the only part that was kinda bad had been when she'd asked for more wine and accidentally elbowed Royce in the , it had been really bad, he'd shown up the next day to accompany to Mass with a giant bruise on his neck.

Alice had made her a beautiful pale green dress that made her eyes stand out, she snorted at the memory of two days before her date:

She wasn't sure what kind of dress she'd wanted Alice to make for her, and Alice suggested she take her measurements and from there, decide which model would be better suited for her. They were on the hip measurement when Bella arrived from her volunteer work.

"Awkward" Bella said upon entering their room and seeing their oldest sister feeling Rose's butt up. "I don't think I want to know why you're doing whatever it is you're doing." She started to leave and Rose reached out to squeeze her butt, Alice whistled.

"That's sexual molestation on domestically weird shit stuff grounds." She cried and slapped Rose's hand. "I'll go file a formal complaint in the kitchen."

Bella had been so uncomfortable, but Alice insisted she was faking it, so Rose trusted her and kept making comments of the same nature up until the day of her date. Bella and Alice had been more than glad to finally see their gorgeous sister score her first date ever. And from what Alice had gathered, Royce was a catch.

He had picked her up on the dot and to Rose's approval, he drove a black sleek car; it was a prototype from Hale's sports cars. She had swooned just at the sound of its engine. He had chosen a small restaurant just outside of the city, Vera and her boyfriend, Mason, had arrived a couple of minutes after them. They had laughed, talked and through it all, Rosalie felt as if she were dreaming.

"She's glowing!" exclaimed Alice from her bed as she threw a pillow at Bella, hoping she'd wake up and see how happy Rose looked. They had talked about her date the night before, of course. But Alice wanted her sister to tell her more about it, about the food, the décor of the restaurant, the music, what Vera was wearing, what Royce was wearing, even what the waiters were wearing.

"Oh, shut up!" Rosalie said as she stood up from her bed and put her long hair on a ponytail. "It was great, stop bugging me."

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm so happy for you!" She rose, and stepped in Bella's feet. She promptly yelped. "And Bella is too." Bella grunted from her bed.

Their days were spent studying and working, in the case of the two youngest. Alice's schedule was more flexible, which made her somewhat unreliable. She had erratic work hours, which sometimes made her miss meals and appointments. However, since starting to work for James Hale, she had become more stable and more available for family time. And gave her a more stable income.

As it was, he was her highest paying customer, which made him a priority. So, when he called, she answered, when he asked her to come to his office and drop whatever she was doing, she did.

"Good morning Gwen" she greeted and the lady at the front desk smiled, relieved. At least the blonde's sister knew her name.

"Mr. Hale is waiting for you in his office." Alice nodded and readily put her fabric books and male fashion magazines in her left arm so she could press the elevator buttons. His office was in the 34th floor and it was a very open space, one she would've loved to have as the main office for her fashion line. She glanced at the large windows that surrounded the entire floor, giving it an air of freedom and clearness.

"Morning, Ms. Swan. I hope you had a nice weekend."

"Thank your sir, you too." James smiled down at her and she repressed a shudder. His blue eyes seemed too blue and too cold despite his attempt at a wide warm smile. She could see the resemblance to his brother Royce and tried to be civil. If they were going to be in-laws some day, she had to behave accordingly.

"Come, Vicky has brought some coffee for us to work with." She nodded and followed him to his office, which she thought was more like a loft. He made a show of cleaning his desk and promptly sitting in a big black cushioned chair behind his glass desk. He motioned for her to sit and she readily obliged, tired of carrying the books around.

"I'm afraid, this will be our last session together for a while" he started. Alice paled and a million thoughts of worry ran through her head. He noticed this, and chuckled briefly as if he was expecting that reaction from her. "Don't worry, it's not permanent, just for a couple of weeks. I'm going to Madrid for business. And I hope we can have this very illustrious meetings once a week through video conference." Alice held back a sigh of relief and mentally rolled her eyes at herself for not having seen that coming.

"Yes, of course. Don't worry about that." He gave her a practiced smile and she wondered what his assistant Vicky saw in him. She was the same age as Bella, if not younger, with bright red hair and big green eyes, she seemed nice enough and too willing to please for her taste. She pushed the thought aside and pulled out her first book.

They finished their session, she showed him what kind of clothing would make him look more approachable and which colors would soften his appearance, he didn't want to look overly meek, but he needed people to trust him. Hence, Alice gave him her tips.

After their meeting – or class as she preferred to call them, she put up her books on her right arm and pushed the elevator button. She'd got the car today and was going to pick Bella up from school, she arrived there a little after four and her sister was already waiting for her with a frown on her face. "If you dressed better, maybe that frown would disappear." Bella huffed and pushed hair out of her face.

"Why are you picking me up though?" Bella asked. It was Friday, so that meant that she had no jobs or anything that required her to take the fast way home.

"Well, I thought you might appreciate 20 minutes with me in a car than one hour in the bus." Alice shrugged, attempting to make Bella believe that her going to get her from school had been done innocently.

"Right." Bella nodded. "For what reason do you want me to cook now?" Last time Alice had asked Bella to cook had been for some client who needed to be taught proper eating etiquette. She'd had to double as a French waiter and had even painted a mustache on and learned some phrases in the language.

"Rosalie wants us to meet Royce." Again, Bella nodded in mock understanding.

"And you know this because…?" she prompted. Alice waved her hand in a dismissing manner.

"Because I know that Royce will be part of our family." Bella found herself nodding again.

"Right, and this you know because…?"

"Fine. I just do. All right? I should've gone to pick Rosalie from school instead of you."

"Rose finished school two hours ago and is already at Hale Industries."

"Yeah. Should've gone to her. But, she wouldn't have been able to invite Royce to dinner if I'd gone and picked her up."

"Good thing that you chose me, huh." Bella rolled her eyes as she replied. Alice gave a small laugh and exclaimed how they were all going to have so much fun.

Bella thought she was going to have to stand around in the kitchen instead of planning her debate and lamented her ability to cook. Meanwhile, Rose had indeed been picked up by Royce from the university and instead of taking her to the workshop, he'd taken her to one of the Hale retailers in the outskirts of the city.

"Pick a car." He'd told her when she finally asked him why he'd brought her there. Rose chose one, assuming she'd get to deconstruct it and make the sketch for the new project similar to that. She picked a dark red one, it looked fast and she had seen it before on display at the main HQ. It had 10 cylinders, and it was a EURO 5 level 2, meaning that Bella would approve given her environmentalist tendencies.

Royce's blue eyes gleamed as he told her that was her new car. She'd been too shocked to do anything about it, but she decided afterwards, that she would've accepted it anyways. She thought the guy must love her if he gave her a car. Plus, she kept on, trying to convince herself, if he accepted to have dinner with her family it must mean that he cared for her.

The week dragged by, Rose felt as if she was the luckiest girl ever: she had a handsome boyfriend whose looks matched hers; said boyfriend had given her a car, her sisters approved (except Bella, but she didn't approve of anyone) of him and her mother hadn't showed up in three weeks. Rosalie sighed in contentment as the smell from Bella's cooking reached her.

She had asked Rosalie to accompany her to the supermarket on to gather what was necessary for Sunday's dinner the day before; Alice had graciously given most of her monthly income to buy meat and vegetables and Bella was like a kid on Christmas day. She nearly ran from aisle to aisle, choosing pasta and rice, talking to herself, wondering weather red meat in a strawberry sauce would be too much red and so on.

"Even though Alice hasn't given us a budget, we should still take it easy," was all Rose said when her youngest sister appeared with the cart full of cereal boxes, every kind of vegetable and fruit she had been able to find, two pounds of chicken, two of medallions and three bottles of wine. Bella looked between her and the food. With a sigh she started backtracking her way into the store, leaving behind most of what she had initially picked.

"We should take some of those fruits." Rose told her dejected-looking sister, who upon hearing the suggestion rushed to bag some prunes and peaches. But when Bella started exchanging recipes with an old lady Rose decided to call it a night.

"Hey, Eliza gave me this amazing recipe," she motioned towards a sixty year old brunette with some white haired strands tied back neatly in a bun that was already walking away, "she told me about this chicken filled with asparagus in a plum mirror. Doesn't it sound divine?"

"Divine?" Rose snorted. "What are you, a prep student?" Bella rolled her eyes with an easy smile and a last wave goodbye to Eliza.

"Shut it, Eliza kept praising the chicken, it sort of stuck." Rose laughed at her sister's weird vocabulary.

"Don't let any of your feminist friends hear that kind of talk, they'll probably kick you out." She had meant it as a joke, but Bella's face fell and Rose felt bad about her quip.

"No they wouldn't. Besides I don't have feminist friends, they kicked me out." She looked sad but angry, a mix between outrage and depression. "After they heard why Black and I broke up, well…" she looked around uncomfortably, "they thought it disgraceful that a man supported female health care more than a woman."

Rose felt a pang in her chest. She loved her sister deeply and she approved of her cause, so it pained her to see her lack of lasting friendships and romantic relationships. Not that Rosalie had more luck in that department; she'd always been more of a loner because of her condition of bitchy resting face syndrome. Girls didn't want to be near her because they considered her too pretty and those who did always made her feel bad about herself – it hadn't been until she met Vera that she didn't feel as if her beauty was a crutch or an offense against her genre. As for boys, well, you've heard about her lamentable state of perpetual singlehood, that is, until she met Royce.

Rosalie understood loneliness, she understood jealousy, she understood spite and she understood hate. And precisely because of this, she never wanted to see her youngest sister living them. Bella had always been the approachable beauty, the sensible lady, the friendly next door girl and had most of the time been surrounded by loyal friends and boyfriends. Until she decided her thing was speaking up for the unborn. She was still all of those great things, but now she had a reputation, one that targeted her as an enemy. A thing she wasn't used to being.

Rosalie wasn't good with words though. So she thought about all the things she could say to her on their way back home but didn't even offer a piece of advice or support. Bella had moved on from it, she knew her choices would affect her life so she didn't mourn them and when Rose didn't say anything, she just assumed it was because she was nervous to bring her first boyfriend to meet the family.

When they were on the doorstep to their brownstone Rosalie flung herself at Bella in a hug. "You're gonna be fine."

Bella stood there for a little while. Trying to figure out what she said or did that made her sister think she wouldn't be fine. Still puzzled she stepped inside and cleaned the meat. Afterwards she put Alice's debit card on top of her bed.

The evening passed by with not much to report. The next day however, was hectic. Rose was flying by with drenched hair and several lipsticks on her hands, Alice was nowhere to be seen but post its were scattered around the house, indicating what to do and when, Bella was stuck in the kitchen as she'd predicted and was trying to figure out weather to marinate the medallions or simply fry them.

"Blue or red?" Rosalie hollered from upstairs to no one in particular. Bella rolled her eyes and put on some videos from Youtube about secular pro-life. "ST. ANTHONY: HELP ME FIND MY PEARL EARRINGS! PLEASE!" Rose yelled in despair from their room.

"Saint whoever you are, please help her find her sanity." Bella replied. Alice arrived at exactly two with lettuce and canned tuna, which she presented as lunch. "Bella, go take a shower. Has Rose chosen what dress- yes, the blue one's a good choice. Ok, good. Now, I'll go talk with Mr. Hale." She hurried off to find her laptop and held a brief meeting about Spanish tapas eating etiquette.

After their crazy evening, Bella was actually very surprised at how Alice's time organizing skills had paid off. The table was set for four people, the wine had been properly chilled, the meat was perfect and Bella had taken a shower and donned on a black dress with ballet flats. Rosalie's saint had made her pearl earrings appear, she'd artfully put on a loose bun and the blue dress she was wearing matched her eyes. Alice had straightened her hair and wore a green skirt with a grey blazer.

Royce showed up a minute after seven.

That had been enough to make Rosalie worry. He'd shown up with a bouquet of pink roses and had leaned in for a kiss, but before he could Rosalie stepped back with a shy smile and motioned for him to enter. He smiled, wrinkling his eyes and put out his hand for her to take it. He entered into the house and stood there, wondering where they were going to dine. Rose motioned for him to wait and a few seconds later Alice appeared. Without Rosalie.

"Um, hi. Were you heading out?" he asked her, expecting that the reason she was still there was because her date was late.

"Rose didn't tell you?" she asked and then her eyes flashed with understanding. Rosalie had been too preoccupied with bringing him home to meet the family and hadn't told the guy that he was meeting the family. His eyes flickered briefly as he too understood the predicament in which he found himself in. He smiled.

"I must've forgotten." He said easily before Alice launched a monologue about her work with his brother and how amazing the main offices were. He nodded, smiled and laughed when appropriate until Rosalie resurfaced with Bella.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_February 18th, 2014_

_The funeral had been very private; Renee didn't want any of his work mates there. But in reality, she didn't even know whom to call. Most everyone that knew him didn't know about Renee and her three daughters. They knew of Charlie's wife, Sue, and their children: Leah and Seth. Also, Charlie didn't have any living family. The O'Sheas had all died through tragic circumstances: the grandmother in the Titanic, the mother in a tornado, the grandfather in a hurricane in Haiti and so on. _

_Although no related by blood, Sue and her children were the last O'Sheas. Sue knew of Renee and her daughters and she wanted to do right by the girls._

_Charlie had told her of Renee's relationship with their daughters and she gave him her blessing every time he went to visit his girls. But she also knew that since he and Renee never married, and Renee had some weird ideas about children, the three girls were not legally his. He'd wanted to change that, but since they weren't married, Renee didn't want that. It was truly an odd situation._

_Also, it was a bargaining chip, since Charlie wasn't legally a parent, Renee could take them and disappear if things didn't go as planned. Leaving Charlie in constant fear of having his girls taken away from him. _

* * *

**Present Day**

The family-date, (as Bella liked to call it after Royce explained to Rosalie the next day that he thought they were going to be just the two of them, and in turn a very embarrassed Rose relayed the misunderstanding to her sisters) had ended in a surprisingly good way. Bella rolled her eyes at how easy it was for people to misinterpret one another, Alice, of course, spared no more than a second's worth of time to the thought and kept on planning what dress designs she'd have to alter to fit the summer's fads.

Royce declared that although he had been hoping for a private meeting with Rosalie since they'd never had one just the two of them. The first one had been 'invaded' by Mason and Vera, the second, by Gwen and her girlfriend and the latest one had been 'crashed' by Rose's sisters.

"For God's sake, Rosalie! You are allowed to drink legally, why can't we have dinner, or lunch if you must, just the two of us?" he told her in despair after suggesting a picnic in Central Park and she had agreed and told him she'd call Vera and Mason so that they could join them there. "Are you afraid of me?"

Rosalie thought about his last accusation for a minute. She studied his handsome face, those blue eyes and blond hair that so perfectly matched hers. "It is not that I fear you, Royce. But, understand that I am not like other girls and I don't believe you to be used to dealing with women like me."

Royce resisted the urge to snort at her claims of uniqueness and replied airily. "But my dearest Rose, you need not worry about my intentions. They are quite honorable." At hearing this response, which she suspected must've come from a regency era book, she smiled.

"Then, we shall have a picnic, just the two of us. After Mass tomorrow?" her smile didn't falter while she asked hopefully. Rosalie knew that Royce was no Catholic boy, but it was slightly bumming for her that he would only walk her to and from Mass on Sundays, but never stayed with her throughout it. During the half hour that it took, Royce went for coffee or a cigarette, rolling his eyes at the idiotic notion of that pretty blonde that enjoyed the pretense of morals.

Meanwhile Bella was struggling to keep her mind open, that maybe this lecture wouldn't end up the way she was already dreading. Her bioethics teacher sat rigidly on his chair and Ms. Danvers, an expert on genetic engineering, continued her discourse. "- this way we can seize control of human evolution. Picking which genes are the ones that will lead to the survival of our species. Technology has come so far already, allowing us to determine if the products will be the unfortunate bearers of an inborn metabolism disease, a death threatening syndrome, even if it will have blue eyes!" Bella clenched her jaw and looked around, wondering if anybody felt the sickening resemblance to a Nazi statement. Ms. Danvers looked around with the exact opposite feeling of hope and joy at seeing so many young adults being educated.

The lecture ended on a bittersweet note, the younger people would be able to live longer and the older generation would have to give up their place on earth: a sacrifice for the greater good. The Q&A session followed and swiftly the people sitting nearest Bella started shifting uncomfortably in their places. Angela, Bella's most loyal friend since childhood started blushing. To her relief, before Bella could cause a scene their bioethics teacher rose from his chair and asked to see Bella outside.

"Whatever for?" she asked bewildered. He gazed at the faces of his other students, all full with hope and eagerness for him to take out the threat before she did something embarrassing.

"About the report for the lecture." He responded with ease. He was planning on making up some new deadline for her. She shook her head and stayed put.

"You can tell me about it after its over" she motioned towards where Ms. Danvers was already answering some questions, "I have some things I'd like to discuss with our guest."

"Ms. Swan. No." he shook his head and Bella's face started to turn red from indignation.

"You will not silence me. I have rights. The first amendment protects me." He motioned towards a security guard stationed outside the auditorium. Bella gasped in outrage and started screaming.

"I will not tolerate this! Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter!" by now the previously organized session of questions had become mayhem and Ms. Danvers face was pale with fear. She'd had some encounters with unbalanced people and knew what they were capable of. She turned towards the people in front of her.

"In the future, science will be able to tell us who will have chemical abnormalities and we'll be able to prevent this kind of situation. Society will be able to live peacefully, in harmony." The crowds nearest her nodded and hoped that one day Isabella Swan would stop ruining perfectly good chances to learn.

"Ms. Swan, stop taking Martin Luther King out of context!" with those words from their bioethics teacher, Bella was practically dragged out of the auditorium.

"Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way!" She managed to yell loud enough that Ms. Danvers heard all the way up in the front and shook her head so hard that her blonde curls bounced, her face full of disappointment and sadness.

Fortunately for her, she was just sent outside without a call to the police and without a disciplinary warning. She exhaled deeply, telling herself to calm down. If she got arrested again she'd lose her chances of being considered for even the slightest raise on her scholarship percentage.

After the lecture was officially over, Angela got her backpack out and gave a small laugh. Bella smiled at her, glad to have one loyal friend despite her obvious discomfort at being seen with her. Bella pondered weather to call Alice or Rose to come pick her up, she glanced at her watch, and it was barely four in the afternoon. The sun was still very bright; she pulled her hair away from her face, said goodbye to Angela and started towards home.

* * *

It was Sunday at 2:31 am. A cat meowed from the windowsill of the neighboring brownstone. A soft knock came from downstairs, echoing among the quiet walls of the Swan residence. Alice had had trouble falling back to sleep after suddenly waking up a minute earlier. She ran her hands through her short locks, and put on her robe. She reached the main entrance and looked back to where her room was, hoping neither of her sisters had woken up when she had.

"Why?" she asked quietly into the front door. "Why do you need to talk to us right now? Why couldn't it have waited until tomorrow?"

An almost inaudible sigh came from the other side of the door. "Open the door. This is urgent."

Alice pondered over what to do and after a few seconds she finally opened the door. Outside was a woman. One who Alice had never seen before, but she could feel that they'd be close someday, not like a sister, but like an aunt. She wore a black trench coat and had braided black hair up into a bun. The woman looked from side to side and asked to be let inside after Alice had observed her for a while.

"Who are you?" Alice said, all thoughts of going back to sleep forgotten.

"Sue Clearwater" she said proudly, probably knowing what the girls' mother had told them about her. Alice gasped and shook her head, mad that she hadn't seen it coming. "I want to propose something to you."

"What?" Alice asked, not meaning to sound rude. She was hoping she'd tell them she'd share what Charles had left to her but tried to hide such enthusiastic thoughts from coming out on her face. "Our mother won't be too happy that you're here, you stole her…" Alice couldn't think of a word to describe her parents' relationship, they hadn't been married and the thought of someone stealing a lover sounded ridiculous. "You stole our father from us." She finally said.

"Look, I know you must think I'm horrible, but now is not the time to explain. Your mother will be here in less than fifteen minutes." She stared at her wristwatch nervously.

"Ok, talk." Alice told her as stonily as she could. The unusual feeling of anger startled her. But once she recognized it, she let herself be angry at the woman. She had taken her father's love away from them, Renee's life partner and apparently, mental stabilizer.

"I want to give you what Charles would've wanted for you." Alice's rising anger melted, she gave a befuddled look at her. Their father hadn't wanted anything for them; he'd made _that_ clear on his last will. Before she could express her thoughts Sue continued. "Your fair share of the inheritance. I know his death was hard on you kids and then what with losing your apartments and cars. Your life got a whole deal harder real fast. But I can't just give the money to you." Alice started to protest but Sue put up her hands in what was supposed to be a helpless gesture.

"Listen, it has to be legal. When this little person is born we'll do a DNA test," she pointed towards her bump, the one Alice hadn't noticed because of the trench coat. It was still too small though, she was probably less than four months pregnant, "which I'm sure will rule as you being siblings and then we can go to a lawyer. That way you'll be Charlie's lawful children as well." Sue finished and as soon as those words left her mouth she moved towards the door and left as abruptly as she had arrived.

Alice had the impression that Sue wasn't a bad person; actually, she thought she had noble intentions. Giving up part of Charles' fortune wouldn't have even crossed her mother's mind if she'd found out that he had other children.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_February 16th, 2014_

_Charlie Swan was not a bad driver, in fact, he had been a rising star in the car racing circles back in his day. Yes, that had been almost ten years before, but he'd retired as a legend amongst the fans. He was also a car junkie, if such thing exists, although not a mechanic, he knew how to fix a car and how to make it better._

_Rosalie claimed that it was impossible for her to stay away from them precisely for this. The engines, motors and oil were as much part of her as the freckles she so hated. Unavoidable and ingrained in her genetic makeup. She'd been the first to doubt the nature of Charlie's alleged accident. _

_The coroner had declared his death an accident, he'd probably just fallen asleep. But Rosalie knew better, or so she claimed. Bella and Alice grieved and attempted to make Rosalie accept his death. But she didn't accept the circumstances of his death until she had examined the car, an automobile autopsy, she'd said. But no, the car was clean, there were no signs of tinkering with the brakes or the AC ducts, which left her with the disappointing idea that her father had lost control of the machine he loved so dearly._

* * *

**Present Day**

It was mid April, and a lot of memories resurged as the second month after Charles' death came. Rosalie had asked for a favor down at the Our Lady's church and had scheduled to have her father's eternal rest be included in the petitions. When she'd told Alice and Bella about it they'd smiled kindly at her, almost as if she were a child who was being cute.

Alice didn't care much for praying or any kind of made up god. She didn't have time for it and the responsibilities it entailed. Bella didn't believe in the church, she was sure that a god existed, but she despised the institution and the people who believed in it tended to be idiots. She believed it was more of a relationship than a religion.

They were sad that he was dead, yes. But in these last years, Charles had become a passive part of their lives. He visited on every odd birthday; sometimes he invited them to ski at Vail for Christmas or New Year. He'd once been a very present father, visiting every two weeks and staying there for another two. But when Alice turned thirteen he'd changed. Bella assumed that's when he had met Sue; Bella was eight years old at the time.

And it hadn't been as if Renee was a very active maternal figure either. Her visits seemed to fall exactly a day before Charles' arrival. In those weeks when they were left without parental supervision the sisters bonded over TV shows, movies, princes, princesses and their shared dislike of Ms. Cope, the nanny. They'd spend many afternoons hiding her left shoes and orange colored lipsticks. Until Alice turned fifteen, that's when Ms. Cope was fired and Renee promised she'd spend more time with the girls.

Dear reader, you can safely assume that she did not do such thing. Charles' visits became shorter and with more time in between them, therefore Renee's did as well. It seemed that the only thing that kept their family together were the three girls. None of them seemed to mind after a while and by the time Alice had turned twenty-one the girls considered their parents as virtual entities that only showed up when absolutely necessary.

Renee still arrived a day or two before Charles but because on those last days Charles only stayed for half a day Renee stayed for one day. And truthfully, the girls appreciated it, though they didn't live together, they still had to have lunch and dinner with the parents. Alice stayed at the brownstone where she'd grown up and Bella and Rosalie shared an apartment in Astoria.

Alice had decorated the brownstone to her like, with blue walls and white furniture, fashion magazines and fashion sketches scattered all throughout the place. She kept the upstairs rooms the same way out of sentimentality, but if she was being honest, she had a feeling it wouldn't be wise to get rid of so many beds. And a year after she graduated college her feeling was satiated, Bella and Rose suddenly found themselves homeless and Alice had the perfect space to host her sisters.

It hadn't been a comfortable arrangement: Bella slept ten inches above the floor and Alice on a bed that resembled a couch, Rose got a decent bed that she didn't have to share and didn't have to watch her step for a sleeping sister.

"Who would've thought I'd be stuck living at my parents' house at twenty two." Rosalie sighed desolately at no one in particular. Bella rolled her eyes and twisted herself over so that she was holding her book above her head.

"Speaking of parents… turns out dear daddy told his mistress to give us our part of the inheritance." At that Rosalie snapped out of her mourning and Bella shut her book without looking at which page she'd left off. Alice smiled, having gotten the reaction she expected from her sisters.

"What?!" Bella exclaimed after a few minutes of silence from Alice.

"Well, his wife. Sue. She's pregnant and said that she'll give us our money after the baby is born and a DNA test confirms us as its sisters." Rosalie grinned and clapped, their luck was finally changing. But Bella wasn't so happy.

"How do we even know that kid is Charlie's? She could've been sleeping around for all we know! Maybe we won't test positive because of that and she'll just have more money to her name!" she exclaimed in outrage. Alice hadn't even considered that possibility and her spirits lowered a little at realizing that maybe they wouldn't be getting anything at all. But there was a part of her that didn't allow her to doubt Sue, a part that was certain that the baby that was in her womb was Charles'.

"I'm pretty sure she's not that kind of woman. Besides what would she gain from getting our hopes up to then smash them?" Rosalie who had been contemplating Bella's words started nodding in agreement to Alice.

"Yeah, what's in it for her?" Bella rolled her eyes at her older sisters' naivety.

"She looks good. It's not her fault that we're not Charlie's daughters, Renee ends up painted as the bad guy – or well woman – and we end up penniless and ashamed of our roots." Bella turned for her book and realized she hadn't marked the place where she left off. She uttered a curse and started looking for the last sentence she remembered. "Look, I know that you think that Sue was a faithful little wife – ten years younger than him by the way – but there is no way for us to be certain of that. For goodness sake, she stole him from a family." With a smirk her sisters knew she'd found the spot in her book.

Alice and Rosalie turned to each other, Alice with a look of exasperation at Bella's lack of faith in the world and Rose worried about the fact that maybe Bella was right and Sue was setting them up. Alice tossed her black hair out of her face and thought fleetingly of getting a haircut, but before she could suggest experimenting with a doll's hair her cellphone rang.

"Consulting fashionista Alice Swan speaking. How can I help you?" Rosalie stifled a giggle at how ridiculous her sister was. "Oh, good afternoon Mr. Hale." At the Hale mention Rose sat up straighter and tried to tame her ponytail. "Yes, of course. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye." Alice hung up and Rosalie was about to ask her what he wanted, but Alice started speaking without need of a prompt.

"He came back from Spain yesterday. Wants me to go down to Willets Point and help him out with some shirts he bought." Rosalie sighed in disappointment. She knew she was being silly, but a part of her couldn't help but wish he'd mentioned something about Royce.

"How old _is_ James?" Bella asked curiously, she wanted to know if there was a possibility of him and Alice being together. Alice scoffed at what she guessed were her sister's intentions.

"He's twenty nine. Too old for me, too young for Renee." Just before she finished her sentence Renee herself appeared through the main door. She gave a quick look at her three daughters, Bella on the floor with a book, Rosalie on the couch and Alice on the floor, reclined against Rosalie's couch with a cup of red wine between them. Renee sighed. "Who's too young for me?"

"Mmm… Alice's boss?" Rose said nervously. Renee arched an eyebrow at Alice.

"He's um, James Hale" Renee's eyes flared up, Alice assumed it was because she knew how rich the Hale family was "he's almost thirty." She finished and Renee smiled at her daughters' silliness.

"Of course, I like my men like my wine. Mature." She said as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Bella gave a small 'Ew' from behind her book and Alice and Rosalie laughed with Renee. Rose smiled at how normal the moment was and yearned for that the way they were being at the moment was the kind of relationship with their mother had always been.

"Well, how was… wherever it is that you went to?" Rose asked hesitantly, she didn't want Renee to snap at her.

"Oh, well there was this conference down in New Orleans that I just couldn't miss. It was lovely." The girls smiled at her and didn't ask more questions, afraid that their mother would take it the wrong way and start offending them.

"That's great, hey I was wondering if you'd-" but Renee was already going up the stairs and Rose decided to ask her mother to dinner with her and Royce at another time. She must've been tired. Alice gave her a sad smile and resumed drawing patterns for skirts and dresses.

Later in the day, Royce was glad to finally be making some sort of progress with the young blonde. They'd gone to the city and had had a picnic underneath a tree. Just the two of them and Rosalie had even allowed him to kiss her. He smiled at the memory but his dearest cousin decided to interrupt. And by dearest he meant the cousin he liked the least.

"You daydreamin' 'bout Rosie?" he asked as he sat down on one of the chairs in front of his desk. "You know she's a smart one, you won't get too far with her." He warned with a smile that showed his dimples. Royce looked at Emmet through slit eyes, he knew his cousin held no resemblance to his family, mainly because he was adopted. Brown curly hair, brown dull eyes and he seemed to lean on the chubby side. He gave a smile of his own, blue eyes twinkling with mirth.

"That is really none of your business. Now get back to work, you're not here on pleasure. Or have you forgotten that your family still owes us?" Emmet's smile disappeared instantly and now it was his turn to stare at Royce through slit eyes.

"I haven't forgotten." He said as he stood up and left, but not before running his grease stained hands through the pale green chair's back. Royce smiled at him, triumph evident in his face. It was in that gloating mood that Rose managed to find him in his office a couple of minutes afterwards.

"You busy?" she asked shyly. She always managed to end her day spotless despite working with the cars directly and Royce admired that. At first he thought she washed off before seeing him, but one day he decided to drop by unannounced to see if Rose did the extra mile to impress him, and she was as clean as if she didn't work there. Royce's grin widened at seeing her in her high wasted baggy jeans and tight red shirt.

"Always have time for you sweetheart." Rose blushed and sat in the same chair his cousin had been sitting in. "Did you need something?"

"Well, I wanted to know if maybe… you'd like to meet my mom." She told him quickly; afraid he'd think they were moving too fast. Royce considered her words for a minute.

"Sure" he said after a while. He knew that for her, having him meet her family was a step closer to gaining her trust. What he didn't expect was what she said next.

"I'd love for you to meet her, but I'm terrified that my mom won't want to, or that she'll judge me or…" he stood up and sat on the chair besides her and kissed her to stop her babbling.

"Now, why would she do that?" Rose shrugged and looked away. Royce sighed and decided that if she knew more about him it'd be easier for her to trust him.

"I think my mom would've liked you." He said, trying to sound as if he hadn't meant for it to slip. "She reminds me of you." He smiled at Rosalie who now had a bewildered face.

"Would've?" she asked, her eyes large with curiosity.

"You see, my family should've also been larger. We should've had three more siblings." Rose smiled at the mention of a big family, but then she sobered up at the implication. "My mom, her name was Norah, she'd always wanted a big family because she came from a very small one. It was just she and her sister Esme. And of course my grandparents, Elizabeth and what was his name? Oh man, I can't believe I forgot." He shook his head in exasperation. "Well, I'm sure it'll come back to me." Rose shot him a small smile.

"Anyway, she met my dad at a dinner party and she said it was love at first sight. They got married two months after." Rosalie smiled at how romantic it sounded. "And James arrived nine months later, they didn't fool around." He gave a small laugh at his own joke. "Despite that, they waited for two years and Jasper came round, and after two more years they had me. We were very evenly spaced." He gave a chuckle and Rosalie wondered if his jokes were made up in the moment. "Anyhow, my mom wasn't happy at three snotty boys, she wanted at least seven kids. So she got pregnant two years after she had me." His face had no signs of the previous humor at the expense of his parents' sex life. Rosalie grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"We were told it would've been another boy, but for some reason or another she lost the baby. Stillborn. It was so freaky, her doctor's appointments had said everything was fine, but I guess one can't control that kind of thing. My mom grieved for a while, I don't remember much, but James says it was painful to watch, he was six and he remembers crying with her when they were playing and suddenly she saw a certain stuffed animal or a crib." He shook his head as if to stop himself from imagining his mom acting like that. "A couple of years passed and she got pregnant again, she was so happy. She was back to her old self. I was four years old at the time. She started playing with my brothers and me; we were finally a family again. Even my dad stopped tip-toeing around her."

"She was having twins, but towards the last months of her pregnancy she started getting nervous, afraid she'd lose the babies the same way she'd lost the one before them. It was much worse when she suddenly fainted, James had to call an ambulance and explain between sobs that our mom wasn't waking up." Rose gasped, afraid this was going to be the end of the story. "It's okay, the ambulance arrived shortly because James had the audacity to tell them that Jasper and me were the only others in the house. I guess it saved her life. They got all of us to the hospital and she was diagnosed with eclampsia, she was very scared for the babies. Every time a doctor showed up at her door she'd ask them to save the children. It was kinda creepy now that I think about it."

"Don't be mean, she's dead." Rosalie scolded him gently. Royce smiled at her.

"All right, sorry. She went into labor about a month before she was supposed to. She had something called placental abruption; the babies were born but died a couple of hours after. My mom was in and out of consciousness for a while and my dad tried to calm her so that she'd get better. Unfortunately, my mom's health was pretty bad, she went into shock and died thinking her babies were both alive." By this time Rosalie had shed a couple of tears, empathizing too much with Royce's mother. "Hey, she died happy. I guess they went together, my brothers and mom." When he finished Rosalie reacted the way Royce had been hoping when he'd told her his mother's tragic story.

She hugged and kissed him. Royce smiled. "If I knew you would've reacted this way, I would've told you about our tragedy way sooner." Rose laughed slightly through her tears and slapped him softly on his arm.

"So, about your mom…?" he asked her.

"Well, I'll ask her when I get home. It'll have to be today or tomorrow, though. She never stays longer than that." She warned.

And when she got home to ask her mom to dinner with Royce she found a note.

_Daughters of mine,_

_Sorry I had to leave like this. _

_- Renee_

Rosalie crumpled it and went to call Royce to tell him that maybe next month she'd appear.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_September 29th, 2003_

_"Mrs. Cope?" Renee asked as she entered the house._

_"Right here ma'am" replied the plump woman from the kitchen._

_"What's new with them? What did I miss?" Renee questioned while looking around nervously, hoping none of he daughters had heard her enter the house._

_"Nothing much, Alice got a blue ribbon on the equestrian competition last week. Rosalie mastered Beethoven's moonlight sonata, all three movements" gushed Mrs. Cope, pride evident in her voice._

_"And Isabella?" Asked Renee eagerly, out of her three children, Isabella was the one she was fondest of. The nanny-chef-surrogate mother sighed and shook her head._

_"Punched a boy in her class, claimed he told her she wouldn't be able to because she was a girl." Renee smiled, glad that at least one of her daughters wasn't imprisoned by society's stereotypes._

_Unbeknownst to the two women, Charles had arrived a few seconds after Renee. He'd been bewildered at seeing her arrive with suitcases and decided to ask he where she'd gone, but something in his gut told him to wait and see what happened._

_"Ma'am, I think the girls need their mom" Mrs. Cope told her in an almost conspiratory whisper. Renee scoffed and rolled her eyes. _

_"That's what you're here for" she answered. Charlie shook his head, unable and unwilling to understand the implications of what Mrs. Cope had said._

_"Yes, and I love these girls dearly, believe me. But I feel as if I've spent more time with them than their mother, you hired me ten years ago when Alice was but a small child and Bella just a baby. Since then, you've forgotten about them." The old woman declared a bit hesitantly. Mrs. Cope remembered those first years, Renee looked to be less than twenty and she already had three children to take care of. Mrs. Cope's heart went out to her, she wanted to help the young mother and make life easier for her. What she hadn't expected was that eventually, Renee would trade places with her._

* * *

**Present Day**

"I hate her." Alice declared as she forcefully put the car keys on the coffee table in the living room. "She's a fucking witch." She turned around with her fists tightly closed, ready to start beating the next person who dared disagree with her. Bella rolled her eyes from her spot in the counter.

"Did you know? Did you know our sorry excuse for a mother won't be showing up to Rosalie's commencement. That bitch!" Alice's face was red, her grey eyes stormy. "She's earned I don't know what! But it's special and I hate her!" She kept on complaining throughout the evening, only stopping when her throat started feeling dry. Bella had already left a couple of hours before to tutor some kid who needed to pass his SAT's and Alice was content with ranting to no one.

The day was May 19th, the weather wasn't too hot to be uncomfortable, but not too cold to have to wear a sweater. The three sisters were upstairs, Rosalie trying to determine if her butt looked good in the dark pink dress, Alice was carefully styling her hair to look messy and Bella sat in Rose's bed, reading about demographic explosions and GMO's.

"Are you sure you're not upset?" asked Alice for the hundredth time that day. Rosalie sighed and rolled her eyes to Bella, who wasn't even paying attention to either exchange.

"Alice. Stop it. I'm fine, I understand that Renee couldn't be here." She didn't take her eyes off her figure on the mirror, "I do, and I'm fine. She's missed every other graduation. It's not new."

"Yeah, but Dad used to go to them. It didn't feel as unimportant. I can totally pretend to be your mother in front of your teachers. I'll even talk weird."

Rose giggled and imagined her sister pretending to be a mother. She was at least four heads shorter than her and didn't look a day over twenty. "I don't think they'd believe you, besides, Royce will be there. You two guys, as well. I won't feel it is an unimportant event." Alice stopped her ministrations to her hair and walked so that she was in between the mirror and Rosalie.

"I hate her for ignoring us, but we'll make it so amazing you won't even miss her." Rose smiled and hugged her sister. Bella looked up from he book.

"What are we even hugging about?" she asked in a disgusted tone but went and hugged her sisters anyway. "You couple of softies."

They arrived at the Columbia campus at around four thirty in the afternoon. Today was only for the Engineering Class and Rosalie was going to be given the Charles M. Rolker Prize and say a few words of thanks afterwards. Everyone was invited to this one; the actual commencement ceremony would be on the twenty-first and only her sisters would go.

"As much as I enjoy listening to your pep talk, we should really go find somewhere to sit." Said Bella, not too happy to stand around and see how every place nearest the podium were being taken. She pulled Alice in her direction and wished Rosalie good luck.

Royce arrived to see the whole thing, but he only made his presence known after the ceremony was over. He had a bouquet of red roses behind his back and somewhat stealthily approached Rosalie.

"You look wonderful sweetheart," he murmured to her ear as he leaned down next to her. Rosalie blushed and smiled brightly as Royce leaned in to kiss her. "I'm so proud of you." He gave her the roses and Rose's smile grew exponentially wider.

"Rose!" Alice appeared out of nowhere and dragged her away from Royce. She shot the latter an apologizing look and Royce waved her away with a smile. "Look! Where's Bella? Oh well, she'll find out later. There's someone I want you to meet." Rose examined the woman, the other woman, as Bella called her. She the prettiest complexion in the world, not a single freckle on her face and Rosalie's jealousy over her looks took over her. She tried to tone it down, how could she be jealous of his dad's widow? How twisted is that? She shook her head and plastered on a smile for the pregnant lady. "Rose, this is Sue O'Shea. Sue, this is my younger sister."

Sue was as sweet and pleasant as Alice described her. All smiles and warmth emanated from her. She had two young children by her legs, the girl couldn't have been older than eight and the boy, Rosalie estimated, was around four or five years old.

"Lovely to finally meet Charlie's girls" she said with a big smile lighting up her features. Alice looked from Sue to Rose with a smile in her face. "Seeing that you just graduated, what are you going to do to celebrate?"

"Uh, well…" Rose fumbled for words. She looked towards the sky, as if it held the answers to what they were going to do.

"Just gonna order some pizza, pepperoni" Alice winked at Rose and continued, "you're welcome to join us if you want." Sue shook her head and Alice tried not to be disappointed.

"I'll take you out. There's this new place in Cooper Avenue that I've been dying to try. It's a bistro." When Alice and Rose attempted to dissuade her from it she simply stated that it was what her husband would've wanted. Sue looked around, trying to find her children. Before she could start freaking out, Alice commented that Bella was with them and to prove her point she signaled towards the library, where the kids were running around a very smiling Bella.

Sue was trying to get her children, Leah and Seth, to stop running around and to get in the car. Rose was smiling at Bella's actions, attempting to cause more chaos so that Sue would take back the invitation. Suddenly a hand touched her shoulder and her first instinct was to shy away from it, but upon realizing the big brown haired doofus was the responsible for touching her, she smiled kindly at him.

"Hey" he spoke with a gigantic smile.

"Hi, Emmet. I didn't think you'd come."

"I wouldn't've missed it for the world. Mason gave me a ride, we live in the same building, y'know." Rose shook her head, she didn't know. Mason and Vera had already spoken to her and as she looked behind her, she saw that they were hanging out by Mason's car, probably waiting for Emmet – who was offering her a small daisy.

"For me?" he nodded and Rosalie took the small flower as she gave him a smile.

"Yes. Congrats, now you can start earning like an engineer and not like a student." He gave her a mischievous smile, dimples included, and gave her a small peck on her cheek as goodbye.

Royce had watched the exchange from his car, waiting for Rosalie to stop feeding his annoying cousin's delusions. When she looked over to him, his sour face transformed and he carefully made his face friendly and inviting. He wrinkled his eyes the way his oldest brother had taught him all those years ago and waved to the blonde girl.

They arrived at the Saverio's Stone Fire Bistro at around six thirty, the place was very full and so, they had to wait for another hour before being seated. Royce was getting ansty and kept pacing outside while Rose was trying to distract him. Sue was telling her children a tale about new siblings and Bella got so angry at it that she stood up and went to the gardens across the street. Alice looked around, bored out of her mind, she wasn't too interested in children, even Sue's children, and decided to seek out any of her sisters; she saw Rose and her boyfriend making out and it was settled that she had no care for being a third wheel.

"I didn't know you were a chain smoker" Alice commented as she sat down besides Bella in the floor.

"Me neither, if it helps you feel better." She responded, sounding a little bit surprised. As if she hadn't even realized she was on her second pack of cigarettes. "It all happened so fast." She decided after letting out a puff of smoke through her mouth.

"Is this because of Renee?" she asked uncharacteristically shy. Bella shook her head, a few strands of hair falling to her face and exhaled more of the acid fog. "Nah, it's more of the whole 'I've never experienced it and it looks cool in the movies' kinda thing." She smoothed out the skirt of her dress and looked away from Alice, avoiding her gaze.

"That is such a bad reason to smoke."

"Well, I've heard worse. There's this boy in my Modern philosophers class that says he started smoking to stop smelling his mother's cat." Alice made a face and Bella laughed.

The heat started getting to them after a while, despite the fact that the sun had dimmed a little and they headed back to the restaurant. "Sue's not as bad as you think and Leah and Seth are funny aren't they?"

"I guess" Bella shrugged. "It's just that I don't think that kind of people exist. I mean, how often do you hear of a widow willing to share her late husband's money with his other kids?"

"Precisely. That's why you should give her a shot. You said it yourself, how often does it happen?" Alice smiled, knowing she had a very good point.

"I suppose you're right." She said with a sigh, throwing the cigarette on the ground and stepping on it.

"You're so un-lady-like" Alice exclaimed as she scrunched up her nose.

"Yeah, well, I'm your tomboy sister. If you want a lady, go talk to Rose." She pointed her head to where Royce and their blonde sister were cuddling and Alice shuddered.

"She's with Royce most of the time now. Have you noticed?" she asked Bella.

"Yeah. Maybe he'll ask her to marry him and she'll get the happy ending she's been dreaming of." Alice shook her head decidedly.

"Under other circumstances I'd be wishing the same thing. But I have a feeling-"

"Oh no. No. Don't you start on your damned feelings. I can make you feel a whole different kind of feeling if you start talking about your strange feelings. I will not listen to them." She shook her head forcefully and started heading inside the restaurant. Alice was faster than her, though. She quickly stepped in front of Bella and grabbed her arms.

"But, Bella, about 90% of the time these feelings are right!" Bella looked down at her sister and kept shaking her head.

"Yeah, I'm backing my argument on the other 10%, now scoot over." Sue was being escorted inside by the hostess, while Leah and Seth were barely following her; too distracted with their argument over a green crayon to think about where they were going. Alice and Bella followed suit, trying not to look like the younger pair of siblings before them and Rose and Rosalie went inside when they noticed no one they knew were outside.

The evening came to an end when Seth fell asleep on top of Leah, causing her to snap angrily at him and punched him in the nose. Alice and Bella decided to go to the movies, on insistence from Bella and Rosalie, the latter of them wanted to spend some time alone with Royce. She got it, they spent the remainder of the night reading and talking, and laughing over their shared dislike of Poe and Rose couldn't imagine a better way to end the day. She found herself wishing that someday, she and the man snoring softly next to her would spend the rest of their lives in the same manner. Maybe with ten or eleven children in between, she was pulled out of her sick fantasies by the incessant ringing of the phone.

"Hello?" she answered, a little upset at having her reverie interrupted.

"Rosalie?"

"Yeah" she tried to suppress a yawn, "who's this?"

"Your mother." At that Rose sat up straighter and a mostly asleep Royce mumbled about the change of position.

"Hi" she cleared her throat and wondered what to do next. A thousand questions ran through her mind: had she called because she forgot something and needed one of her daughters to send it to her? Had she remembered that Rose's commencement ceremony had been today? Had anyone died? Before she could keep coming up with ridiculous explanations for her mother's midnight call, Renee started speaking.

"It's just a quick call, I was actually thinking that maybe you'd be out for lunch right now. I was just about to head for lunch myself, actually. There's this sign outside my hotel." Renee paused to scoff and Rosalie blanched, who ate lunch at 1:30 am? "Fucking kangaroos, did you know they're considered a pest around here?" Australia? Her mother was in Australia? What was she doing there? Rosalie looked to Royce, who was now snoring in her lap, wishing he were awake so that he'd vouch for her mother's call. Who'd believe her mother, Renee, was in freaking Australia. Wasn't it like winter around there? Rosalie shook her head and tried to concentrate on what Renee was saying. "but them potatoes. Man, you should taste them, they're like little grapes and when you punch them, they make the weirdest sounds!" Rosalie was completely at a loss as to what her mother was even talking about. Potatoes that looked like grapes and made weird noises?

"Anyhow," her mother finally resumed, "just called to congratulate you. Sorry I couldn't be there, love you. See you later!" and with that she hung up. Rosalie glanced around, wondering if someone was going to pop out of the bathroom and yell 'punked' or something of that sort.

She shook her head again and drifted off to sleep with Royce still on her lap.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

_December 2nd, 1993_

_"I respect you too much to marry you." He declared with a grin. He thought that Renee would not want to steep so low as to become anyone's wife. He was right, of course, but the red head was willing to lose a little of her dignity in order to be able to call herself rich._

_"Oh Charles, I would marry you in a heartbeat if that's what you wanted." She said lovingly and then stared at the small girl in her arms, they'd decided to call her Isabella. _

_"No, oh no, Renee. I could never do such thing to you." Renee smiled tightly at the man and tried not to squash the baby she was holding like a tomato. _

"_You know I love you, right?" she asked after a few silence filled minutes._

"_I love you too." He responded sweetly and Renee fought against the urge of dropping the tiny bundle of joy to the ground like a football and strangling the man. _

* * *

**Present Day**

It was a very bright day, the sun was glaringly bright, birds were chirping happily from the large trees scattered throughout the streets. Isabella Marie Swan was wearing her favorite pro-life t-shirt and was ready to go protest at the abortion clinic just a block way from her school. She felt like a soldier, heart pounding, feet stomping decidedly towards the clinic. Everything was going just fine, even according to plan, she'd managed to convince a 15 year old to go back to her house and not have the procedure. But it all went down the drain when a gunshot was fired to a doctor who was just arriving. _Shit_, Bella thought, _if I get caught up on this there's no way I'm getting more financial aid or a scholarship raise._

She looked around, more terrified about getting caught by the police than about the man who was probably bleeding to death less than four feet away from her. She shook her head, trying to decide if she should run or stay, pondering which choice would get her in less trouble with the law. _Shit_, was all she could think. Her brain was frozen, it couldn't go to any other thought than the same curse, over and over and over. Finally, when every other protester was hurriedly fleeing the place she chose to forgo the same strategy.

Her escape materialized in the form of a man with a motorcycle who'd just stopped at the red light, oblivious to the havoc surrounding the building. He was wearing a black helmet, polarized, and a black leather jacket. Bella decided to hop on his back just a second before the green light, thus allowing her to stay on the moving vehicle for at least another block. He looked towards her, about to demand she get off but he must've seen something on her face and heard something in her pleading voice, asking him to just go, that he obeyed.

While the bike was still moving, she quickly took off her shirt, eliciting a halfhearted: "What are you doing lady?" Bella simply ignored him, pretending she hadn't heard and turned the conspicuous shirt inside out so that it was all black and promptly tied it below her ribcage.

They stopped at a café a couple of blocks away. She quickly said thanks to the man and started to walk back home. Leaving a very confused man on his bike, wondering what happened. Later, when he was at home, he retold the story to his fiancée and they both decided it had been weird. But when the news started and the story of a shooting near where he picked up the strange girl, the couple settled it was for the best he didn't get more involved with her.

Bella returned home late that day, still excited about the whole incident, from the fifteen year old girl, to the shooting, to her getting away and finally, the man who'd helped her escape. Alice gave her a knowing smile and asked her to tell her his name, to which Bella answered that she didn't know and didn't really care. Rosalie was nowhere to be seen, after having graduated, she finally took up a full time job at Hale industries and was only home for dinner when Royce didn't take her out. She was 'living the dream', according to her.

Bella, as I've mentioned before had several jobs throughout the year, but during the summer, since no child would willingly be tutored, she was practically jobless. That is, if she didn't have a three month job at a summer camp in the outskirts of a town in Vermont, which she did. So four days after Rosalie's commencement ceremony and two after the shooting, Bella took a bus and went away. She wrote letters every three days not really expecting letters or e-mails from her sisters who were busy with their city jobs, as Bella referred to their regular gigs with disdain.

With Bella gone and Rosalie practically gone, Alice had the house to herself. Renee wasn't due to visit until June, so it was almost the same as before Charlie died. Unfortunately for Alice, she didn't find herself at peace in so much quiet and orderly mess as she used to. Instead, she craved for her sisters' company, Bella's half crazed speeches about humanity and Rosalie's complaints about freckles and how working with cars was awesome but dirty.

It was in this very depressed mood that the oldest sister decided to treat herself to a dress that wasn't homemade. She styled her hair and put make up on, grabbed her purse and donned on her prettiest summer clothes. She wasn't exactly sure of which part of the city she wanted to shop, maybe the stores on Broadway, or the boutiques around Soho. She chose to go the indie route and headed towards Little Italy and from there on to the shops. She didn't take the car, it felt like one of those days where no parking spot would be spared, so the braved on the buses and subway.

She had some bucks to spare thanks to James Hale and wanted to spend them only on herself, not on Bella's education, food for the house or her bank account to be used towards her own workshop. Alice stopped on a Starbucks first, she was going to splurge, and bought herself a latte. She practically hopped out of the coffee shop, sunglasses already in place, hat forgotten inside the store.

Hot coffee, too hot to be comfortable on that scalding summer day, all over her hands and feet. The other person much worse than her: white shirt and blue jeans soaked with the scorching liquid. Her hands shook out of pain, shock and chagrin. She headed back inside and grabbed as many napkins as she could, not really stopping to think how she'd take care of the mess.

"Don't worry darlin'" the stranger drawled, Alice couldn't do anything but pat his chest. Attempting to take off as much coffee as she could, but also, she wanted to touch his abs. _Great_, Alice thought, _I'm turning into Bella. _She smiled sheepishly at the stranger's chest until he caught her hands.

"It's ok, really." She looked up eagerly, wanting to see if the voice and the chest matched an equally perfect face. She repressed a small gasp, thinking: _he's gorgeous._

The stranger laughed at her face, half covered in sunglasses and she was sure her cheeks must've been red as a tomato. After all, that's how her sisters' cheeks responded to being flustered. Well, except Rose, she just hardened her face and adopted an aloof overall air on herself. So only Bella blushed, but to any outsider, Alice didn't look too unhinged. Just slightly ruffled.

"I am so sorry," she started, but Mr. Gorgeous interrupted her.

"Its not everyday a belle such as yourself showers you in" he sniffed his shirt, "latte?" He guessed. Alice nodded dreamily and smiled.

"I've _so_ been waiting for you. It took you long enough." The man bowed dramatically, but it just looked ridiculous, he was still covered in coffee. Also, the weather was not helping him and he was starting to sweat, Alice didn't care, of course, she thought he was the most perfect being ever.

"I do apologize, miss" he smiled at her. "I'm Jasper."

"Alice" she replied with an equally big smile.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_February 11__th__, 2014_

_Today was the day he was going to tell his three daughters about Sue. Renee thought he'd be home in three days so she wouldn't know to come home beforehand._

_Gloved hands grabbed his own. _

"_What?" Charlie looked to his right, trying to catch a glimpse at the owner of the hands that were keeping his glued to the steering wheel._

_Charlie attempted to brake but found that it was stuck. "What did you do to my car?" he was being surprisingly calm about the whole business. His voice tinged with curiosity over what was going to happen next._

_Time seemed to slow down, Charlie's thoughts going to his family. He vaguely noticed that the masked person had left the vehicle, leaving him to maneuver the car and possibly save himself._

_But it was too late. A light post was right in front of him, his car moving too fast. No matter how many years he had spent racing, he knew there was no other outcome. This was his last ride. _

_He screamed before the car made impact. Blackness surrounded him. _

_He could hear and see nothing; the acrid smell of burning metal the only input of the outside world. His last thoughts leading him to five children, all playing in a huge meadow full of flowers._

* * *

**Present Day**

Red, white and blue. Everywhere. Alice shuddered despite the insufferable heat, what was the need of putting everything in that color palette? Wasn't the flag enough? No, they also had to do tables, chairs, plates, tabletops, flower arrangements, clothing… she shuddered again.

"Americans" she muttered and the hand holding hers squeezed lightly.

"I hate to break it to you," Jasper paused, as if bracing himself to tell her something unpleasant, "but you're an American."

"Not" she gritted her teeth, "of the kind that wears such aberration." She finished while looking at an old lady dressed in flags, shorts, shirt, even her sneakers matched.

Jasper chuckled lightly, leaned down and kissed her cheek. "This only happens once a year, darlin'. Might as well enjoy it." Alice smiled back at him and Jasper felt it was now or never to ask her. "Come to the 4th of July barbecue at my dad's house."

Alice winced a little, she had a lot of work to get done and the festivities of the day allowed her to catch up on things she had left unfinished. Like that dark blue dress for Leah, she'd never done children's clothes before, but she found that it was amusing. Almost as if she was doing clothes for a doll.

"That way you can meet grumpy ol' Mr. Hale." He winked and Alice smiled. She would do almost anything for the man, so she relented and agreed to go.

"Don't look so defeated, your sister is going to be there too." Alice smiled stiffly, she still didn't feel right about Royce. It wasn't a completely, - ok, scratch that, it was completely irrational. She didn't know what made her think of Royce as incompatible for Rose, but she just couldn't handle seeing them together. It was like seeing something gone wrong, an abomination.

Their looks matched too much for her liking, his laugh was too low compared to Rosalie's loud one, their sense of humor too similar. She shook her head as to rid herself of such tiresome thoughts.

Meanwhile, Rose was in the now rare situation of being home alone. And in a streak of bad luck (or good luck, depending on whose point of view you saw things), Renee appeared. Suitcase in hand, fringe vest and a crazy blue cowboy hat, she looked to have come out of a bad imitation of a comic book. Before Renee could start barking orders, Rosalie jutted her chin out and huffed in indignation, preparing for what she needed to say.

"You are going to meet my boyfriend. Tonight. Don't you dare bail out." Green eyes stared at blue ones, neither of the women too happy to be having this conversation.

"Is he rich?" Renee asked, resigned to hearing her most beautiful daughter had ended up with some low life mechanic.

"Does it matter?" Rosalie countered defiantly.

"Yes. I will not have a freeloader for son-in-law. Do you still want me to meet him?"

"I should say no." Rosalie clenched her fists around the hem of her skirt. "But I still think you should meet him. I think…" she looked to the ground and then met her mother's amused stare. "I think he's the one. I would like to marry him, someday."

Renee snorted and lifted her hand to her face in an attempt to hide her laughter.

"Alright purity incarnated. I'll meet your boy toy." With that, Renee pushed past Rosalie who was as still as a rock near the stairs.

* * *

"Oh no, please. Please don't wear that." Alice viciously shook her head and motioned to her sister's dress.

"What's wrong with this?" Rosalie asked, a little upset that she was being criticized. She was finally going to meet Royce's dad and she wanted to make a good impression.

"Its red, blue and white. All it's missing is some stars."

"Well, what's wrong with that? It's the fourth!" Rosalie huffed and continued to twirl in front of the mirror. She really liked the dress and it wasn't as ridiculous as Alice was making it out to be. The bodice and skirt were dark blue and only the straps and top of the cleavage had red and white.

"Why? Why did I inherit all the good fashion sense?" She exclaimed to the skies. "Bella only wears tees and the occasional tank top with jeans, you had more promise with your 50's style preference. But now? Now you've made me lose all faith in you lot."

"What are you wearing?" Alice apparently ignored her younger sister and left the room. She came back ten minutes later after she'd put on a red dress.

"Are you kidding me? I can't" Rosalie plopped down on her bed. "I can't wear this dress cause it's too American, but you can wear yours because…?" she lifted a hand, motioning for Alice to fill in her sentence.

"Fine, you can wear your dress. Although it totally screams 'redneck'."

Rosalie rolled her eyes at her sister's antics. "You're being absurd, you've never even _met_ a redneck." Alice studiously ignored her and started to style her hair.

"Come on, are you going with Jas and me?" Alice asked her after awhile, she was now finishing her makeup, she lifted the brush and pointed it towards Rosalie questioningly.

"Nope, I'm going to pick up Renee and then head up there." Rose, Alice decided, needed to be left without a mirror. It was getting awkward to speak to her back and/or reflection.

"Oh. Well, " Alice attempted to clear her throat, it was laughable at best and Rosalie rolled her eyes again. "I guess I'll see you there."

"You will." Rosalie's phone rang and started to grab her things. "Adieu, I'll talk to you later. Have fun."

Alice wondered when their relationship started feeling strained. Then she decided that it was just her imagination. Rose wasn't even aware of Alice's disapproval of Royce.

Meanwhile, Rose knew that there was no other way Renee would ever go; it was obviously not her cup of tea. So Rosalie endured a forty-minute drive in silence and the occasional snide remark from her mother guessing about her daughter's boyfriend.

In the other side of the spectrum, Jasper couldn't shut up about how his family would love Alice. He was more excited about having her meet his aunt and uncle than his father. Royce, however, wasn't leaning on any kind of reaction, Rose already knew his siblings and annoying cousin more than he would like so he was just hoping for a comfortable afternoon amongst acquaintances.

Jasper and Alice arrived an hour before Rose and her mother. Jasper made sure Alice knew everyone and what they did and that they knew who she was and what she did. He introduced her to his aunt and uncle first, lovely people, Alice had decided. They reminded her of Sue, she imagined that's how parents were supposed to behave towards their in-laws: polite, inquisitive, imparting judgment and accepting whatever choice their child had made.

Finally, Alice met Mr. Hale. He didn't want to be addressed differently and would never allow it. Alice felt so uncomfortable, she'd never felt that way in her life and was left looking around nervously, wishing desperately for Rose to arrive and have somebody to talk to.

When Rosalie did arrive, she grabbed Renee's arm and didn't let go until she'd seen Royce. He appeared a couple of minutes later, two margarita glasses filled with blue and red drinks in his hands.

"M'lady." He bowed to the younger Swan and offered her a drink, not caring for Renee's obvious eye roll at his actions. Rosalie giggled and accepted the drink, after she tried it and offered her compliments; she turned to her mother who was looking as if she was getting ready to kill the blond man.

"Royce, sweetie, this is my mother" she motioned to Renee who was acting a little childishly with so many eye rolls and scoffs. "Renee, this is my Royce."

After having attempted conversation, Rose decided that Renee would not be allowed near Royce. She honestly thought that Renee would behave once she saw that Royce was well off and most definitely not a prospective freeloader. Rosalie put on a smile and grabbed Royce, asking him to introduce her to his family. Which he only did half way; he introduced her mainly to the old folks, some of who weren't even related to him.

Mr. Hale was the embodiment of aloof hatred, if such a thing were possible. Once blond hair was now turning white, eyes that were capable of leaving anyone speechless and mouth turned downward in a permanent unlikeable face made him look even more imposing than the rumors said he would be like. He didn't even attempt to talk to Alice, he simply eyed her up and down as if hoping that the longer he stared the more chance there was he'd see what his son had seen in her.

"You could try speaking to her. She'll be my wife someday, better start accepting that." Jasper told his father as he took him away from the short girl. Mr. Hale snorted in a manner so similar to what Renee accustomed to do that Rosalie turned, fearing her mother had somehow managed to spite someone already.

"I'll try being nicer, if you'll try being smarter." Mr. Hale announced and walked in the opposite direction, bumping, much to his chagrin, into his youngest son.

"Old man!" Royce said with a smirk. "I think its time you met my beautiful Rose." Rosalie looked directly at Mr. Hale, offering him one of her best smiles. However, he remained silent and simply studied her face.

"Don't bring her back around here, you understand, boy?" and without even waiting for acknowledgment he left the couple of blonds dumbfounded. Until they realized that there was another couple, much more verbal in their distress, arguing.

Royce rolled his eyes and muttered: "Freaking Cullens and their loud romantic partners." He led her away from the commotion and tried to explain his father's actions.

"Rose, trust me. He's a bitter old man, has been since my mom passed. Don't worry, he'll learn to – " Royce looked thoughtful, trying to decide what would most likely happen, "he'll learn to be civil to you." He smiled reassuringly, but Rosalie felt anything but. "Anyway, where's your lovely little sister?" he tried to distract her.

"Summer camp." She said absentmindedly, still musing over Mr. Hale's reaction to her. She'd have to ask Alice if she was treated as badly as her.

"Isn't she a little old for that?"

Rosalie scoffed, "She's a counselor, not a camper."

"I imagine this will be our life, huh? Your family can never seem to be together, when your mom's here, your sister isn't or something like that." Rosalie smiled sadly, considering how true his words were.

"Speaking of my mother, have you seen her?" Rosalie looked around nervously.

Her nervousness was all for naught. Renee had finally decided to be civil and was talking amicably to Royce's oldest brother. Royce seemed to notice the same thing, "Well, it's nice to see our families finding common ground huh? Even if it's about— " he strained to listen what they were talking about and when he did, his face turned incredulous. "I didn't know James knew about art."

* * *

The Hale's house was a beautiful property, it was had view to the sea and honestly I don't think I could do justice to it. But I'll try, it was getting late and the sky was full of stars, the fireworks had ended a couple of hours ago and now they were all just waiting for the guests to leave. The house was decorated, but not in a vulgar way, lights hung from every tree and there were only two giant flags; one in the front yard and the other hung from a balcony on the other side of the house. It was three stories tall and its façade was made out of bricks.

Renee had left with the car, leaving Rosalie wondering where her mother had learned to pick pocket and how to get back home. She was about to head back to where Alice and Jasper were talking, hoping her oldest sister would know what to do.

Annoying Rose to no end, Alice answered her phone and Rose decided to wait for Alice to end, not wanting to talk to Jasper.

"Alice. Look, I know you're busy, but I need you to get my kids." Alice heard almost a second after having picked up her phone.

"What?" Alice nodded and ignored Jasper's questioning look. "Sure." Jasper motioned for Rosalie to come; maybe it was something about the family. "Don't worry, I'll be there ASAP."

"Rose, hi! Where have you been?" Rosalie rolled her eyes and asked her to tell what the phone call was about. "Oh that? Nothing, come, Jasper will drive us both home. Thanks for offering Royce, maybe next time." Alice finished although Royce hadn't even offered and wasn't really planning to.


End file.
